Thursday, January 17, 2013

The First Mate Speaks: Take 1

Several years back I came up with the idea of buying a
lobster boat and converting it into a craft we could live aboard with
our two cats, Georgie and Sophie. I envisioned us cruising the
intracoastal waterway along the East Coast, and perhaps taking it to
the Bahamas.

We've spent a lot of time on the East Coast, especially
in Maine, taking photos, and a lot of that time was spent in harbors.
I was always looking at boats and talking about going to sea again.
So we began looking at lobster boats and trawlers. Lobster boats
seemed too small to go cruising in. We looked at Grand Banks
trawlers, but I didn't like the design, especially the high bridge
from which you pilot the craft. I also had a hard time listening to
the diesel and smelling the diesel fumes. Not my kind of life on the
water. I did like the Nordic Tug; they seemed closer to sailboats,
but still there was the diesel. Anyway, they were way out of our
price range.

But every time we looked at boats, my eye would go to a
Hinckley or some other beautiful sailboat. So why were we looking at
power boats? We talked about motorsailers but I really don't like
the design of that kind of boat—halfway between a true sailboat and
a power boat.

About 5 years ago, Jim said that he thought he might be
getting too old to go cruising on a sailboat. But ever since we spent
the year on Escapade I've
yearned to go to out to sea again. In my heart and soul, I am the
Water Gypsy. So now, Jim has decided he's not so old, and I get to go
“down to the sea again” with The Old Man of the Sea.

2 comments:

Angie and Jim....this is Ginny & John from A2. We saw the article in the Observer...we have doing that since 99! Now we are 6 mos on and 6 mos off, boat lying Trinidad. Give us a shout if you get back to town. We travel only the Caribbean up to the USVI. Have fun and make sure you have a copy of Captain Ron!